I'm to blame
by BlackxValentine
Summary: Life sure has a funny way of showing you who your friends are, sometimes it proves it in the most tragic ways. Ariadne learns first hand how much she cares for her teammate when he puts his life on the line for her and the child inside her. A/A, A/E


**Disclaimer: I don't own Inception**

**This one just literally came out of no where, there was no real planning; I just wrote it as it came to me.**

**Enjoy

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Ariadne watched in silent horror as the paramedics pulled Eames from the vehicle, her right shoulder screaming out in pain as it was tended to; the realization of what had just occurred coming back to her quickly in a flood of memories as she grimaced. Paramedics feeling her slight enlarged stomach that currently housed her unborn child.

"Eames...?" She muttered as they checked him over, his condition clearly sever when she got a look at his bruised and cut up face which was now mostly obscured by a mask as that had a large thing at the end of it. Ariadne's mind was still in a daze as she watched the men start to pump the strange thing on the end, her thoughts reeling with explanations before she finally gained enough reason to piece together what was happening.

"He's going into cardiac arrest!" The tall man beside the forger announced, who was muttering under his breath while pushing his hands down on her friends chest to try and revive him. Ariadne's quiet ramblings about what was happening and trying to piece everything together came together in a full on explosion of tears and yelling as she tried fight the paramedics tending to her. Letting her adrenaline take over as she clawed at them to reach her friend who laid so still, bleeding and broken with unnaturally pale skin and sunken eyes as the two men still fought hard to bring to forger back. Two other medics grabbed Ariadne as she tried again to fight but found the adrenaline wearing off, "no, no let me go please! Eames!"

She heard faint words being exchanged between the two men, one sentence stuck out, "I don't know if he's going to make it." The words hit Ariadne hard, breaking her already fragile heart into pieces as they continued the CPR, their faces expressing the more desperate attempt to keep the forger alive. _'Please God, don't take Eames.'_ The tears were heavy on her face, blurring her vision enough to block out most of work they were doing, but not enough to block out the images of them seeing the things they did and were currently doing to the forger. Ariadne cried out to Eames again before falling unconscious. Oblivious of whatever else may be happening to the forger as her mind drifted to one last thought of her baby and then, nothing.

**^.V.^.V.^.V.^.V.^.V.^**

_Everything happened so fast, they were in the car, sitting at a red light on the way to the apartment Ariadne and Arthur shared; her quiet request for a ride from Eames was one that she just had the want to do. Not knowing why she asked him but was thankful when the Englishman said he didn't mind. The gentle, but heavy English accent bringing a smile to her face as she sat in the car with him. Neither on speaking as the light on the road to their left turned red, a car speeding down the road and showed no signs of stopping. _

_Ariadne didn't see the car but Eames did, it was only when they were beginning to pull away from the now green light that the forger saw it and without a second thought. He turned the car, letting the speeding vehicle hit his side of the car instead of hers; knowing full well that he was not only trying to save her, but also her child. Arthur's child, sitting inside her, that was all that mattered to him in that moment as he felt the painful collision of the car against his door as it smashed into him and caused them to hit a lamp post._

_The speeding driver attempted to drunkenly walk away from the scene before some pedestrians grabbed him, eventually wrestling him to the ground just as someone helped Ariadne, who was already crawling out of the wreckage. Ambulance sirens filling the air before she lost consciousness for a few minutes, only to wake and see Eames being laid on the asphalt._

**^.V.^.V.^.V.^.V.^.V.^**

"Ari? Ariadne, can you hear me?"

Arthur's worried voice broke through her thoughts as she hugged him gently and touched her slightly swollen belly with tears in her eyes, everything before this point was almost a blur to her. The next thing she knew was she was waking to find her husband beside her and a nurse letting her know she only had minor injuries. Her husband's quiet works brought her back to her senses, "the baby's fine. She's fine, Ari."

Ariadne smiled gently before a panic overwhelmed her, causing Cobb and Arthur to take hold of her shoulders to keep her from jumping out of her recovery bed. Her 'minor' injuries, being her arm which was badly bruised along with some small cuts from glass, throbbed at the sudden movement. "Eames! Where's Eames!"

"Ari calm down, you shouldn't be stressed right now."

"Please Arthur, tell me Eames is alive. Please!" The two men knew that Ariadne's unstable emotions from the accident and pregnancy were talking but both of them couldn't stop the look of despair that engulfed their once relieved faces.

"Eames is in the ICU... He's in bad shape; we almost lost him a few times but it seems like the commotion in his room has settled down." Cobb said gently to the still shaken woman, remembering the last time he'd gone to see the forger and being thankful that the room wasn't full of medical staff.

"I need to see him," Arthur was quick to grab his wife's shoulder, gently trying to push her back onto the hospital bed, slightly surprised when she shoved his hand off her shoulder and pulled the IV out of her hand. "Ari, get in bed."

"Arthur, let me through now." "Ariadne," the extractor beside her whispered as she stood on slightly shaky legs.

"I need to see Eames."

Finally she convinced them to let her through, watching her small steps closly as she exited the room and went in the direction they pointed. The walk to the ICU was sore for the young architect as she slowly walked with Arthur's help, her feet smacking against the cool tiles, the hospital gown moving with the breeze of the air flowing throughout the halls. It was when she stepped in front of the closed door that she froze for the first time, the immediate feelings of guilt and sadness overtaking her again as her hand stopped on the door handle and showed no signs of moving.

The men guessed she was in a way thinking over what had happened or maybe trying to picture the state of their forger before actually setting her eyes on him in his current state of recovery. Granted she knew that he was far from recovering but the thought of actually seeing how injured, how broken, how weak he was, all because she asked for a lift that he'd graciously given to her.

Finally mustering up the courage needed, Ariadne pushed the door open with her right hand, ignoring the ache she felt at even the smallest movements as she them placed that hand over her stomach while Arthur held the door open. Stepping inside, Ariadne not only felt the smallness of the room, she saw it as well. Many machines bunched around the forgers hospital bed, various IVs and drips going in and out of his arms. His sunken in eyes shut normally, as if he were only asleep. A ventilator tube in his mouth that was doing his breathing for him thanks to the machine, it's loud sounds worrying her as she looked over and thought of the unseen damage that's there. The forgers condition was certainly worse than Ariadne had imagined. And she was the cause of it all.

The voice in her head snapped at her, bringing up the fact that the speeding drunk driver was not her doing; immediately her other inner voice that represented the intense guilt she felt retaliated. Screaming to the more logical voice that if she hadn't asked Eames for a ride, than this would have most likely not happened; could have found some kind of taxi or bus to take but no, she had to ask the forger who was always so kind to her. His devilish good looks and rough voice were enough to make her heart beat a little faster, but never did he force himself on her, never once did he step out of line when it came to his friendship with her. Knowing full well her love was for Arthur, he accepted it without question and was always there for the two of them if they needed him; despite his usually hectic lifestyle of always moving around. He seemed to make time for the team with ease and with no guilt about rescheduling prior arrangements.

Always the showman, like an actor in the world of shared dreaming; Eames was an enigma of sorts; Ariadne liked to think of him as a book with many pages. Too many life stories to read, too many persona's; always downplaying his brilliant mind to make the first impression that he was a man of average intelligence. Even around the people he trusted and worked with, he continued to be modest with his smarts, never flaunting his abilities or acting as if he had superior rank in terms of his job on the team.

Always the grounded one, the one who seemed to be more set in reality than the others. It still never ceased to amaze Ariadne that he was so talented and detailed when studying people and yet it was so hard to read him, she almost wished that sometimes she could learn the ways that he masked his emotions when needed. Now those emotions were bottled inside him as he lay unconscious,slowly beginning the healing process from something that she felt the extreme need to atone for. Her small hands brushing over the forger's pale hands, slowly caressing her finger tips across his skin as if he were made of the worlds finest glass; ready to break at the slightest pressure.

The silence said it all for the three of them, each ones feelings spread out through the air as the stood beside their friend until a nurse took Ariadne back to her room and told the Cobb and Arthur to leave.

**^.V.^.V.^.V.^.V.^.V.^**

"Really love, you don't need to be here." The Englishman's voice was still hoarse, but better than it had been before to the architect's ears as she moved the small table so he could eat. Picking up her own small fork and digging into her small lunch as he did the same, only eating small bits at a time. She could tell he was just doing it to humor her, the way his eyes flashed with a familiar cockiness that she was beginning to miss in his absence from the realm of consciousness.

Her gentle smile bringing one to Eames' still bruised face, his body almost healed to the point where he could hopefully leave after spending close to three weeks in the hospital. Still looking pained but never complaining, he always had a smile for Ariadne when she walked in the door to his room. Nothing but happiness in his eyes to see that her and her unborn child were both safe as she sat and talked, making it a daily routine to have lunch with him.

"You should be at home resting, you've been through a lot." Ariadne brushed his comment aside with a slight glare that made him give her a faint smile, her eyes bright with concern and still showing the guilt that she wouldn't express openly yet. Finally it seemed that Eames broke the seal she put there, pulling the words from her mouth that flowed like a waterfall. Each one pertaining to how she was why this happened, how she shouldn't have asked for a ride; Eames took it all in without a single word spoken from his mouth until she finished with a tear stained face.

"Now listen to me," Eames said quietly, his scratchy English accent making her heart beat a little harder as she looked at her friend who brushed a soft thumb across her cheek; wiping away all the tear streaks from her reddened cheeks. "I gave you a ride because I wanted to, I turned the car because I wanted to, and I got banged up because of my choices. Not yours."

"Eames, I-" "No, Ariadne. Enough is enough, yea? Just it stay in the past, right now all that matters is you, your baby, and my eventually tasting real food." Eames smirked as she laughed at his last comment, wiping her eyes with a tissue. She was silent when the man who was such a mystery, such a strong fighter, placed a gentle hand to her stomach which was beginning to grow.

The feel of a kick hitting his hand as he felt the presence of life inside the young woman, her hand resting on his as she pulled it up and kissed it softly. Again with tear filled eyes.

"Eames I... Thank you, thank you so much."

The forger removed his large hand from her stomach just as Arthur walked in, catching a glimpse at his friend's actions before wearing a gentle smile. His hand grasping his wife's slender shoulder as Eames started to feel the medication kicking in, his eyes shutting; the last thing he felt before giving into the comforting darkness of sleep was a pair of cool lips on his forehead.

The architect's gentle kiss was enough to send him to sleep with a sense of accomplishment as she whispered to Arthur before shutting the door behind her.

"She seems to like her God-father."

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**I hope you all enjoyed this, it was kind of a spir of the moment thing. Started it writing it for no particular reason and then felt like finishing it. This is just a one-shot but I will most likely one day write some ArthurxAriadne that also involves their daughter.**


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